GLOBAL NEWS UPDATES… Mac Miller and his REMember Music imprint have signed with Warner Bros. Records. The deal has been reported to be worth $10 million dollars, which will include all future Mac Miller and REMember artist releases. Miller was formerly signed to the Pittsburgh-based independent label Rostrum Records, also home of Wiz Khalifa, where he scored a No.1 album with Blue Slide Park. Warner Bros. Records has made a number of changes in the past few weeks, which has seen a number of its A&R staff on both the East and West Coast departing their positions with the major. Additional changes are said to be imminent. Several U.S. labels and publishers are on the cusp of signing a chart-topping Icelandic band. A&R Worldwide has learned that deals are imminent. Ron Fair : It has been announced that Ron Fair has departed from Virgin Records as Chief Creative Officer and EVP after being with the company just under two years. Fair was initially brought on board to Virgin in early 2013 by Capitol Music Group’s Steve Barnett to help reinvigorate the label. Fair, a veteran A&R executive, has held positions with Island, RCA and A&M Records as well as with Geffen Records where he served as Chairman prior to heading to Virgin. Among Fair’s many accomplishments include the discovery of Christina Aguilera at RCA and the formation of the Pussycat Dolls as well as achieving Grammy-winning hits with Mary J. Blige and Queen Latifah among many other successes. Lily Allen has joined Maverick, the new management stable spearheaded by Guy Oseary, where she will be looked after by Scott Rodger (Quest Management) and Henry Village (Stack House). Allen recently parted ways with former management company Rocket after six and a half years. 300 Entertainment, launched by label veteran Lyor Cohen along with Todd Moscowitz and Kevin Liles, continues to expand its operations. Last week 300 unveiled a new website design in addition to adding 16 members to its A&R, marketing, promotion business affairs and art teams. Under the radar, Cohen’s team has brought in a roster of over 20 artists that includes buzzing Voice talent Jacquie Lee, Grammy-winning songwriter Eric Bellinger and former baseball player now rapper Mike Stud as well as a number of other licensing and recording deals alongside manufacturing/distribution partnerships with artists and labels. AEG Live’s Goldenvoice, the company behind Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, has announced the appointment of two senior level team members in the UK, who will be tasked with expanding the Goldenvoice brand across the UK. Oscar Tuttliet takes on a promoter role while Laura Davidson fills the position of Vice President, Goldenvoice/AEG Live. Davidson, formerly a national promoter with Metropolis Music, has worked with artists such as Ellie Goulding, alt-J, Disclosure, Sam Smith, Alabama Shakes and Jessie Ware over the past five years. Also transitioning from Metropolis, Tuttliet’s credits include work with Palma Violets, Drenge, The Strypes, Fat White Family, Eagulls and The Wytches. Primary Wave Music has announced the signing of R&B singer, songwriter and producer Tank to their talent management roster. Tank’s recent release, his sixth studio album, debuted at No.1 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop charts this summer. Over his career, Tank has received four Grammy Award nominations and has collaborated with artists like Chris Brown, Drake, Omarion and Kelly Rowland. Tank joins a Primary Wave roster that also includes Melissa Etheridge, CeeLo Green, Cypress Hill, Ginuwine, Eric Benét, The Go-Go’s and Goodie Mob as well as many others. TuneCore has launched a new service within their platform called YouTube Money which allows TuneCore artists to further monetize their YouTube placed recordings. YouTube Money can monetize any video content that uses an artist’s sound including both user-generated or content that’s posted outside of an artist’s own channel. TuneCore collects a percentage of ad revenue for the videos monitored and the remaining earnings go back to the artist through the same account as their distribution and songwriter royalty revenues. Grass Roots Music UK, an alliance formed by the representatives of British artists in the folk, roots and country genres, is working to further develop the profile of these and other artists among both media and fans alike. The organization has planned a London show for November 24th as the first step towards a UK tour with plans already being discussed for shows in America to include Nashville. Ezra Vine : Former A&R Worldwide featured artist, Ezra Vine, has finalized a publishing deal with the UK offices of Kobalt Global. Ezra Vine, who recently signed with Parlophone Records in the UK, has just released his Celeste EP worldwide. Kobalt’s Sr. VP of Creative, Miller Williams tells A&R worldwide of the signing, “We’re extremely pleased and proud to have Ezra Vine as part of the Kobalt family. Not only is he a fantastic young artist with international appeal, but a songwriter who I think will have a long career. We’re looking forward to working with him and his management team.” Ezra Vine will be performing in Los Angeles and New York in the coming weeks and is managed by Auckland, NZ-based Matt Coleman. WME has announced the signing of Wiz Khalifa for worldwide representation. Khalifa, whose most recent album debuted at No.1 on the Billboard 200 in August, has a number of fashion brand partnerships including those with Converse, headwear company Flat Fitty and Freshko which Khalifa co-created with Diamond Supply Co. Additionally, Khalifa’s own label, Taylor Gang Ent., has a roster including Juicy J and Ty Dolla $ign as well as others. Apple’s iTunes has reported an increase in sales to $4.6 billion which is a 7% increase from the same time last year. Additionally, in the wake of a highly-successful iPhone 6 launch the company’s net profit reached $8.5 billion which surpassed analyst’s predictions. Spotify continues to make use of its Echo Nest acquisition by further developing the platforms ability to make recommendations, engage other apps with legal music and combine human DJ’s with algorithms to source great music from recording history. Spotify’s newest search offering, Truffle Pig, will make use of Echo Nest’s in-depth song analysis and allow editors to search within specific parameters (hotness, tempo, recording date, acousticness, etc) at various thresholds. Truffle Pig is expected to roll-out in 2015 to Spotify’s tastemaker and leading amateur playlisters. Sony/ATV has finalized a long-term worldwide deal with three time Grammy-winning rapper, songwriter and producer T.I. which includes his credit on the hit-song “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke as well as all future works. Across his career, T.I. has sold over 14 million albums and 30 million singles and among his success counts 50 tracks on the Billboard Hot 100 (as a main artist or featured act) including a number of tracks that reached top-of-the-chart honors. BMG has finalized a worldwide administration deal with French hit-making soul singer Ben l’Oncle Soul to represent the artist’s catalog and future works. Ben l’Oncle Soul’s debut self-titled album, released in 2010, sold 600,000 units worldwide and his second full length À Coup De Rêve was released in September. Warner Music UK has announced the promotion of Peter Breeden to CFO for the company. Breeden will assume the role from Simon Robson who exits the UK in December to take up the position of President, Warner Music Asia Pacific. Additional changes for Warner Music UK include the promotion of Mike Watson to VP of Financial Planning, Rupert Lougee to VP of Shared Services and Financial Reporting and the addition of Sarah Rishi (formerly Viacom Inc. [MTV Europe]) as Financial Controller. Dan Chertoff : RCA Records has announced the appointment of Dan Chertoff to VP of A&R for the label. Chertoff was previously at Canvasback Music/Atlantic Records where he served as Director of A&R and was responsible for the U.S. signings of alt-J and The Orwells. Dean James, Co-Founder and former CEO of MAMA Group, has announced the launch of a new company, Sixth Plc, which will use data analytics to move forward their activities across its artist-to-live platform. James, who will assume the role as company CEO, founded the company in partnership with Apeejay Surrendra, one of India’s largest conglomerates and owners of Typhoo Tea in the UK. Last week Pandora unveiled a new set of tools for artists called Pandora AMP. AMP will allow artists to access data and visualization tools which seeks to provide artists more insight into their audience. AMP’s value will come as a result of its scale that boasts over 50 billion hours of streamed music in its 9 years of existence. The platform has also generated listener feedback in the form of its “thumb up/thumb down” rating system which has been used over 45 billion times. Amidst falling listener growth and listening hour’s numbers, Pandora has reported an increase of revenue of 40% from this time last year. The company showed a $2 million net loss against last year’s $4.1 million with a record revenue of $239.6 million.
Posted on: Tue, 28 Oct 2014 01:15:28 +0000
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